The perfect ratio between dry food and canned wet food

lucky star · Jan 17, 2017

Hello, everyone!

I am an owner of a male kitten of 4.5 months old and it is my first "cat" experience. Now I am trying to find the perfect ratio between dry food and canned wet food diet. My kitten likes both types and I have decided to create a mixed diet, because these two types of food have pros as I understood when searching for info in Google.

Thank you in advance for any help and suggested advice!

lazer · Jan 17, 2017

I think the perfect ratio would be 0% dry food, 100% wet food.

(Kitten pics pls!

)

lucky star · Jan 17, 2017

Lazer,

Is it your recommendation for the kitten life stage or for all life stages? What is your opinion about the statement that the dry food is necessary for teeth care?

Thank you!

kittyluv387 · Jan 17, 2017

Kittens can eat any food as long as it has quality ingredients. Adult, kitten, senior, low calorie are just gimmicks. Do you think eating chips and crackers would clean your teeth? Many of us dont believe the old school tip of dry food being necessary to clean teeth. Cats in the wild get their teeth cleaned from ripping flesh and bone. Domestic cats just simply need to get their teeth brushed, start early!! I have been brushing my cats teeth since he was a kitten. If you do want to feed it dry try to limit to to one meal. Also sneak in a little bit of extra water in their wet food since cats cant tell how thirsty they really are. Theyre meant to get their moisture from their food. If you browse through the nutrition forums youll find out a lot of info why its ideal not to feed dry. Youll also notice they dont have any flat molars that are meant for eating things like kibble.

check out catinfo.org if you want to see some detailed info.

jaspurrr · Jan 17, 2017

The ratio depends on what your lifestyle is like. If you're always going to be around on a schedule or are stay-at-home then feed all wet. If you're someone who's out and about or might be gone/have to have someone catsit here or there then feeding some dry to make things easier is fine, especially if your cat can restrict itself for free-feeding dry. I feed 50% dry, 25% canned, 25% raw and it works great since I have a varying schedule - canned in the morning, raw when I get home, free feed dry. You'll find what works for you.

The ratio you want to feed also depends on how much water your cat drinks. My cat drinks almost as much as a dog his size, so feeding dry isn't a problem. With a male cat especially, if he's not drinking a lot of water, increase that wet ratio as much as possible.

The only difference between life stage food is that in a lot of adult foods they put in more fillers which is really unhealthy, making it unacceptable for kitten consumption. And I actually wouldn't feed that to my adult cat either. If it says all life stages you're fine, and anything high quality is usually all life stages.

lucky star · Jan 17, 2017

kittyluv387 said:
Kittens can eat any food as long as it has quality ingredients. Adult, kitten, senior, low calorie are just gimmicks. Do you think eating chips and crackers would clean your teeth? Many of us dont believe the old school tip of dry food being necessary to clean teeth. Cats in the wild get their teeth cleaned from ripping flesh and bone. Domestic cats just simply need to get their teeth brushed, start early!! I have been brushing my cats teeth since he was a kitten. If you do want to feed it dry try to limit to to one meal. Also sneak in a little bit of extra water in their wet food since cats cant tell how thirsty they really are. Theyre meant to get their moisture from their food. If you browse through the nutrition forums youll find out a lot of info why its ideal not to feed dry. Youll also notice they dont have any flat molars that are meant for eating things like kibble.

check out catinfo.org if you want to see some detailed info.

Thank you! The info is interesting and useful!

lucky star · Jan 17, 2017

Jaspurrr said:
The ratio depends on what your lifestyle is like. If you're always going to be around on a schedule or are stay-at-home then feed all wet. If you're someone who's out and about or might be gone/have to have someone catsit here or there then feeding some dry to make things easier is fine, especially if your cat can restrict itself for free-feeding dry. I feed 50% dry, 25% canned, 25% raw and it works great since I have a varying schedule - canned in the morning, raw when I get home, free feed dry. You'll find what works for you.

The ratio you want to feed also depends on how much water your cat drinks. My cat drinks almost as much as a dog his size, so feeding dry isn't a problem. With a male cat especially, if he's not drinking a lot of water, increase that wet ratio as much as possible.

The only difference between life stage food is that in a lot of adult foods they put in more fillers which is really unhealthy, making it unacceptable for kitten consumption. And I actually wouldn't feed that to my adult cat either. If it says all life stages you're fine, and anything high quality is usually all life stages.

Thank you! Could you please give me some tips about raw food. At least, what type of raw food you give the cat?

kittyluv387 · Jan 17, 2017

Lucky Star said:
Jaspurrr said:

The ratio depends on what your lifestyle is like. If you're always going to be around on a schedule or are stay-at-home then feed all wet. If you're someone who's out and about or might be gone/have to have someone catsit here or there then feeding some dry to make things easier is fine, especially if your cat can restrict itself for free-feeding dry. I feed 50% dry, 25% canned, 25% raw and it works great since I have a varying schedule - canned in the morning, raw when I get home, free feed dry. You'll find what works for you.

The ratio you want to feed also depends on how much water your cat drinks. My cat drinks almost as much as a dog his size, so feeding dry isn't a problem. With a male cat especially, if he's not drinking a lot of water, increase that wet ratio as much as possible.

The only difference between life stage food is that in a lot of adult foods they put in more fillers which is really unhealthy, making it unacceptable for kitten consumption. And I actually wouldn't feed that to my adult cat either. If it says all life stages you're fine, and anything high quality is usually all life stages.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Could you please give me some tips about raw food. At least, what type of raw food you give the cat?

Hey I can add in a tip or 2 here. There is pre frozen raw and freeze dried raw. If you have the freezer space i suggest frozen raw since it tends to be cheaper. But freeze dried raw is more convenient. I feed primal frozen nuggets. I keep the bag in the freezer and keep 3 days worth in the fridge. Its important if you want to warm it up you add warm water and not hot because hot will cook the bones which is bad. Check out primals website to see which retailers near you sell them. Retailers will also vary in price. Due to lack of freezer space i feed freeze dried to my 2nd cat. For that i use primal and natural variety instinct raw market, which i get from amazon. If you do half raw and half canned thats also a good option too. The more raw you feed the smaller and less stinkier the cat poo will be due to less fillers and no processed meat. Its an awesome perk, the lack of stink.

Some canned food ingredients i avoid:
Menadione sodium bisulfate (dangerous vitamin k supplement)
Carageenan
Grains
Meat by-products

There are other raw brands of course but they tend to be too expensive for me.

jaspurrr · Jan 17, 2017

Lucky Star said:
Jaspurrr said:

The ratio depends on what your lifestyle is like. If you're always going to be around on a schedule or are stay-at-home then feed all wet. If you're someone who's out and about or might be gone/have to have someone catsit here or there then feeding some dry to make things easier is fine, especially if your cat can restrict itself for free-feeding dry. I feed 50% dry, 25% canned, 25% raw and it works great since I have a varying schedule - canned in the morning, raw when I get home, free feed dry. You'll find what works for you.

The ratio you want to feed also depends on how much water your cat drinks. My cat drinks almost as much as a dog his size, so feeding dry isn't a problem. With a male cat especially, if he's not drinking a lot of water, increase that wet ratio as much as possible.

The only difference between life stage food is that in a lot of adult foods they put in more fillers which is really unhealthy, making it unacceptable for kitten consumption. And I actually wouldn't feed that to my adult cat either. If it says all life stages you're fine, and anything high quality is usually all life stages.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Could you please give me some tips about raw food. At least, what type of raw food you give the cat?

Unfortunately I'm probably not the best source for information about raw food, I get all my raw food from wild game that I hunt myself. There's predone supplement packs you can get for raw foods like that, but I just stick to 25% raw so my kitten gets the nutrients he needs from the rest of his food, or on days he's really hungry I'll give him an extra chunk of meat to add up to 50%.

There's a lot of info online about raw food if you're interested in either doing it yourself or buying it. The above poster has good info about raw food you buy. I know I could buy medallions of frozen meats for my cat at the local pet food store, so it's worth asking your pet food store about it too. If you want to make it yourself, catinfo.org has some recipes and general steps on what to follow. Making raw yourself is one of the cheaper options too. Really, even buying it can be cheaper than cans depending on what canned food you're getting too. Just make sure it's at least fridge-temperature or warmer (warmer by adding hot water) when you give it to your cat.

LTS3 · Jan 17, 2017

Lucky Star said:
What is your opinion about the statement that the dry food is necessary for teeth care?

Dry food does not help with dental care at all. It's a huge myth. No food keeps teeth clean although raw feeders do say that raw bones and gizzards do help. The only way to keep your cat's teeth clean is the same as you would do for your own teeth: daily toothbrushing and dental cleanings as needed. Use only pet toothpaste, never ever Human toothpaste. Pet stores sell toothpastes in a variety of flavors and also pet toothbrushes.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/does-dry-food-actually-clean-your-cats-teeth

There is a forum here on TCS that goes into detail about raw and home cooked foods: http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-amp-home-cooked-cat-food Commerical raw pet food is the easiest way to get started. You have a choice of frozen, freeze dried, dehydrated, and air dried. If your freezer space is limited, feeding frozen raw may not work out. The other types of raw are shelf stable so you just keep them in a cabinet or shelf. Most commerical raw foods are complete diets but some are not so be sure to read the package. I feed Nature's Variety Instinct frozen raw medallions. Stella and Chewy's, Primal Pet, and Rad Cat are other popular brands of raw foods.

cocobutterfly · Jan 18, 2017

Perfect Ratio

Dry: 0

Wet (raw, homemade, canned): 100

It doesn't matter how much water a cat drinks with dry food. The compounds and additives that are added to dry kibble so that they fill out and hold their shape are all terrible for the feline health especially their kidneys. Your cat may be somewhat hydrated with the additional water intake, but no amount of water is going to flush out those toxins from their system.

The perfect ratio between dry food and canned wet food

lucky star

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lazer

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lucky star

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kittyluv387

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jaspurrr

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lucky star

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lucky star

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kittyluv387

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jaspurrr

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LTS3

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cocobutterfly

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